EVEN MLBPA CAN’T SUPPORT PLAYERS INVOLVED IN THIS CASE

Putting off punishments in latest PEDs case would penalize Padres

Imagine the paparazzi snapping pictures of Bruce Wayne in the Batcave courtesy of Alfred’s tip. Or perhaps Watson serving as the state’s star witness in its case against Sherlock Holmes.

As far as loyalty 180s go, those would top the world of fiction. And while it’s hardly a negative, this may top the world of sports.

Since its inception, the Major League Baseball Players Association has given its players secret-service-like support. Seemed for decades the union had the same company line as Shawshank inmates — “everyone in here is innocent.”

But the word now is that if strong evidence exists that a ballplayer used performance-enhancing drugs, the MLBPA won’t have his back. Seriously, does that not sound like Huck Finn bailing on Tom Sawyer for causing too much mischief?

If you’re a baseball fan, of course, this is wonderful news. A longtime France in the war against doping, MLB has taken action so proactive that the union has no choice but to spurn cheaters so as to avoid the “bad guy” label.

But if you’re a Padres fan, this is yet another reminder — a memo that if brighter days are ahead, they’re in the darker times’ custody for now.

Last month, we learned that the league is seeking punishment for 20 players believed to be connected to the Miami-based clinic Biogenesis. Among those listed in this unprecedented undertaking were former MVPs Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun … along with Padres Everth Cabrera and Yasmani Grandal.

Since then, reports have come out that penalties wouldn’t likely be served until 2014, which, for a Friars fan feeling like he’s already in prison, sounds like an impending move to the hole.

Come on now — San Diego is already in last place in baseball’s weakest division. It has been doused with injuries all season and just watched its All-Star representative fail to take the field for the second straight year.

If Grandal and Cabrera are going to face discipline — which is no guarantee given the novelty of this case and the shadiness of clinic-owner-turned-squealer Anthony Bosch — wouldn’t you want to get it over with immediately? Treat it like a Band-Aid and just rip it right off?

If anything, losing Cabrera (Grandal, of course, is out for the year with an injury anyway) may cause the Padres’ record to sink low enough to scoop up some blue-chip draft picks.

Instead, MLB may see the Friars’ 90-or-so losses this year and raise it 10 more the next. Opening-day optimism may be instantaneously squelched by PED-pessimism.

But this isn’t baseball’s problem. This has been baseball’s I’m-mad-as-hell-and-I’m-not-going-to-take-this-anymore solution.

As MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said from New York last week: “We went through the cocaine era of the ’80s and there was no drug-testing agreement, which was quite sad. The Pittsburgh drug trials — very sad, and still no drug-testing agreement. Now here we are, 30 years later with the toughest drug-testing agreement in American sports.”

It’s true. However, because none of the 20 players sought in this case actually failed tests — and are instead being investigated for “non-analytical reasons,” as MLBPA Executive Director Michael Weiner said — the league is not bound by the 50-game/100-game/lifetime-ban penalties in place.